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Forums - Gaming - Can 4 consoles survive simultaneosly

thranx on 13 December 2012
freebs2 said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:

Devs would still need to port their games over from Windows to Linux (ie: changing the tools from Direct X to Open GL) to make them work.

why would it use linux? did they say that?

No, but given the recent words of Gabe Newel (when he said Win8 was a catastrophe) make it hard to believe that they would use it. Besides, if they go with Windows, they wouldn't be able to tweak the UI so the machine would be like just like a regular PC, with an OS that controls it all and with the user having to go to Steam to play, etc.

Going with a Linux distro allows them to change the UI and make the machine start directly into Steam.

yes, but that would remove its ability to be a functional computer as well. no windows no use as a pc.

PCs don't need windows to be PCs. There are many people that use Linux or MacOS, and besides gaming they can do almost everything a windows PC does. the difference will be the software.

For example, instead of MSOffice you will be "forced" to use a program like OpenOffice that does basically the same and given that it can save your files in a format that MSOffice recognises, you will be able to transfer whatever you do on one program to the other.

And if you want to surfthe web you can use plenty of browsers too (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.)

most general pc users can not utilize linux. I haven't tried linux, but when i tried Ubuntu I knew why windows does so well. I know linux is a functional OS, but not one made for the masses. and while open office is great, its still no MS office, and i have experience with transferring files from it to ms office and they dont allways come out well.

Ok, Openoffice may not be still MS Office, but on the other hand when you're buying a gaming PC most likely your purpose is not to get the best productivity software.... in terms of web browsing, social and mutimedia capabilites Ubuntu is perfectly as efficient as windows, also you don't have to make the assumption Linux = Ubuntu. If Valve decides to run linux on their console it would still most likely be system dedicated OS based on linux, not Ubuntu. Even Android is based on linux but I guess you know it already.


if i'm getting a gaming pc over a console its most likely for the pc functionality of it. Yes android is linux based, and i wouldn't recomend it to anyone as a pc replacement either. They do have great functionality though. They even have ms office which is good. But the andoid tablets i have used do not compare to a pc. I could be wrong, but i think steam box would be better with windows. it may all just be my personal preference too, more people are more open to new os's now than ever before as we have three competing os's for the first time i can remember.



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JEMC on 13 December 2012
freebs2 said:
JEMC said:
freebs2 said:
I imagine the Steambox to be a gaming console in all respects, but with a PC hardware architecture (x86) and a proprietary OS based on linux. Steam will be used to buy both games and apps to add functionalities to your system.
Using a PC architecture, it could be easily supported by all current PC/Steam developers, with the option to optimize the game a little bit if they want to.
As their main goal, they should deliver a good price/hardware compromise, this way those who are interested into a low to mid level gaming PC could opt to buy their console, while hi-end PC enthusiats (a minority) could still use standard Steam on their PCs.
Imo, if they don't screw up something, if they manage get a couple of good exclusives it could coexist with other consoles and even steal some marketshares.

Devs would still need to port their games over from Windows to Linux (ie: changing the tools from Direct X to Open GL) to make them work.

Ok, but don't they do it already when porting games on Ps3? Except for indie games most Steam games are also avaliable on Ps3.

I admit, I'm not an expert, but I guess porting a game on console is a much more complicated job than (just) changing tools form Direct X to OpenGL. Yes, a port on "Steambox" wouldn't be a totally painless job, but still it sounds less taxing than a console port. Am I right?

Don't worry, I'm no expert either, and I don't know how hard is to make a port from a console to another or to PC. After all, Sony, Msoft and Nintendo sell their own dev kits to facilitate development, and engines like UE, CryEngine, etc support many platforms, yet there are many cases of bad ports.

Indie games aren't a good example as they hardly take the hardware of consoles to their limit, so the ports don't need to be that much optimized as retail games are. Besides an indie game can be developed using either OpenGl or DirectX, making the port more or less hard.

But there are many indie games have been launched for Linux with the Humble Bundles, and here is a list of the Linux games available on Steam (not many).



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.

freebs2 on 13 December 2012
thranx said:
freebs2 said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:
thranx said:
JEMC said:

Devs would still need to port their games over from Windows to Linux (ie: changing the tools from Direct X to Open GL) to make them work.

why would it use linux? did they say that?

No, but given the recent words of Gabe Newel (when he said Win8 was a catastrophe) make it hard to believe that they would use it. Besides, if they go with Windows, they wouldn't be able to tweak the UI so the machine would be like just like a regular PC, with an OS that controls it all and with the user having to go to Steam to play, etc.

Going with a Linux distro allows them to change the UI and make the machine start directly into Steam.

yes, but that would remove its ability to be a functional computer as well. no windows no use as a pc.

PCs don't need windows to be PCs. There are many people that use Linux or MacOS, and besides gaming they can do almost everything a windows PC does. the difference will be the software.

For example, instead of MSOffice you will be "forced" to use a program like OpenOffice that does basically the same and given that it can save your files in a format that MSOffice recognises, you will be able to transfer whatever you do on one program to the other.

And if you want to surfthe web you can use plenty of browsers too (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.)

most general pc users can not utilize linux. I haven't tried linux, but when i tried Ubuntu I knew why windows does so well. I know linux is a functional OS, but not one made for the masses. and while open office is great, its still no MS office, and i have experience with transferring files from it to ms office and they dont allways come out well.

Ok, Openoffice may not be still MS Office, but on the other hand when you're buying a gaming PC most likely your purpose is not to get the best productivity software.... in terms of web browsing, social and mutimedia capabilites Ubuntu is perfectly as efficient as windows, also you don't have to make the assumption Linux = Ubuntu. If Valve decides to run linux on their console it would still most likely be system dedicated OS based on linux, not Ubuntu. Even Android is based on linux but I guess you know it already.


if i'm getting a gaming pc over a console its most likely for the pc functionality of it. Yes android is linux based, and i wouldn't recomend it to anyone as a pc replacement either. They do have great functionality though. They even have ms office which is good. But the andoid tablets i have used do not compare to a pc. I could be wrong, but i think steam box would be better with windows. it may all just be my personal preference too, more people are more open to new os's now than ever before as we have three competing os's for the first time i can remember.

Fair enough. Still I think the potential selling points of a stambox as opposed to a standard console wouldn't be mainly related to the extra-gaming funcionalities of a PC, but to gaming-related funcionality of a PC: like being able to switch between Mouse/Keyboard and gamepad; being able to play former PC-related games like DOTA, SimCity, Star Craft and former console-related games like Street Fighter or Tekken all in the same box; buying games for a "Steam price" while buying the hardware for a "console price"; etc.

As for Windows, who knows, it may be better I don't know, maybe the Xbox8 won't be so much different from this Steambox, since there were rumors about it supporting Windows 8.



freebs2 on 13 December 2012
JEMC said:
freebs2 said:
JEMC said:
freebs2 said:
I imagine the Steambox to be a gaming console in all respects, but with a PC hardware architecture (x86) and a proprietary OS based on linux. Steam will be used to buy both games and apps to add functionalities to your system.
Using a PC architecture, it could be easily supported by all current PC/Steam developers, with the option to optimize the game a little bit if they want to.
As their main goal, they should deliver a good price/hardware compromise, this way those who are interested into a low to mid level gaming PC could opt to buy their console, while hi-end PC enthusiats (a minority) could still use standard Steam on their PCs.
Imo, if they don't screw up something, if they manage get a couple of good exclusives it could coexist with other consoles and even steal some marketshares.

Devs would still need to port their games over from Windows to Linux (ie: changing the tools from Direct X to Open GL) to make them work.

Ok, but don't they do it already when porting games on Ps3? Except for indie games most Steam games are also avaliable on Ps3.

I admit, I'm not an expert, but I guess porting a game on console is a much more complicated job than (just) changing tools form Direct X to OpenGL. Yes, a port on "Steambox" wouldn't be a totally painless job, but still it sounds less taxing than a console port. Am I right?

Don't worry, I'm no expert either, and I don't know how hard is to make a port from a console to another or to PC. After all, Sony, Msoft and Nintendo sell their own dev kits to facilitate development, and engines like UE, CryEngine, etc support many platforms, yet there are many cases of bad ports.

Indie games aren't a good example as they hardly take the hardware of consoles to their limit, so the ports don't need to be that much optimized as retail games are. Besides an indie game can be developed using either OpenGl or DirectX, making the port more or less hard.

But there are many indie games have been launched for Linux with the Humble Bundles, and here is a list of the Linux games available on Steam (not many).

Ah ok. Well I'm just making an assumption; considering how hard it is to get 3rd party support on a platform, if you are not Sony or Microsoft, I guess a relatively small company like Valve wouldn't even dare to release a console if it isn't very cost-efficient for developers. Maybe I'm wrong, time will tell.



JEMC on 13 December 2012
selnor said:
JEMC said:

PCs don't need windows to be PCs. There are many people that use Linux or MacOS, and besides gaming they can do almost everything a windows PC does. the difference will be the software.

For example, instead of MSOffice you will be "forced" to use a program like OpenOffice that does basically the same and given that it can save your files in a format that MSOffice recognises, you will be able to transfer whatever you do on one program to the other.

And if you want to surfthe web you can use plenty of browsers too (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, etc.)

Yes as of Jan 2012 many people use Linux and OSX.

Win marketshare was 92% then. OSX was 6%, Linux was 1% and the other 1% was down as other. So many users.

Well, given that some argue that there were 1 billion of PCs by 2008, 1% would still mean 10 million users for a not well known and with 0 marketing OS.

But what does it have to do with the things that can or can not be done with Linux or the chances of Valve using it for its console device?



Please excuse my bad English.

Former gaming PC: i5-4670k@stock (for now), 16Gb RAM 1600 MHz and a GTX 1070

Current gaming PC: R5-7600, 32GB RAM 6000MT/s (CL30) and a RX 9060XT 16GB

Steam / Live / NNID : jonxiquet    Add me if you want, but I'm a single player gamer.